Utada Hikaru’s ‘Fantome’ Makes Massive Opening Week Debut, Second Only to Beyonce This Year

She's shattered records throughout her entire career, so it's really no surprise that Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru made a chart-shaking return to the music scene this past week...even after a nearly decade-long break in between studio albums.

The "Tomodachi" singer's new record, Fantôme — her first Japanese studio album since 2008's Heart Station — landed at No. 1 on Oricon's Weekly Album Chart Japan, shifting 253,000 physical copies of the record, making it the highest-selling opening week for a female solo album in Japan this year, according to AramaJapan. And that's still not even counting digital sales or streams. (As Oricon and AramaJapan both point out, the feat was accomplished without the usual incentives of multiple versions or bonus gifts — just the one version of Fantôme.)

The only woman to do it better worldwide? Beyoncé, whose Lemonade pushed 485,000 pure album sales in its first week according to Billboard (653,000 with streaming) back in the beginning of May.

Until Adele's 25, Utada Hikaru held the record for highest first week sales in modern history, moving over 3 million copies in the first week with her second studio album, Distance. She also maintains the highest-selling Japanese album ever, 1999's First Love. Fantôme is also Utada's ninth No. 1 Japanese album overall.